A solidarity call for nationalists to put aside “internal” differences

Posted By: March 02, 2022

Letters to Editor. Irish News. Belfast. Published: Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Fr. Sean McManus. President, Irish National Caucus, Washington DC.

The Irish National Caucus has issued a solidarity call to the nationalists/republicans/Catholics in Northern Ireland to put aside ‘internal’ differences and vote with self-confidence – just like black Americans did in electing Joe Biden as president of the United States – in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections on Bobby Sands Day, May 5. And what better day for a solidarity call than Bobby Sands Day.

Although the situation for Catholics has greatly improved, thank God, since the Good Friday Agreement, nonetheless, it is ever more clear that England’s partition must end. Therefore, the enduring, over-arching issue in the upcoming election is: are you for Irish unity and against England’s partition? There is no escaping that question.

Being against England’s partition, of course, also means being against all its attendant evils, amply displayed for the past 102 years.

Nationalists/republicans/Catholics in Northern Ireland must not be blackmailed or brow-beaten into thinking “it’s time to let go of all that” because it’s in the past. No, it is not. Injustice, if not righted, is always – always – in the present, as black Americans now have the confidence to assert. It is not about revenge or failure to forgive. It is about building up the beloved community in solidarity, justice, truth, and equality – based on democracy, respect for human rights, and national self-determination.

And Catholics in Northern Ireland must not listen to false and outrageous charges that if they vote against racism and sectarianism, they are being racist and sectarian. A strategy often tried against blacks in America.

In official Catholic social teaching, the four social values are truth, justice, love, and freedom. Was the artificial state of Northern Ireland founded on those values? Has the state been maintained for 102 years on these values?

And, lest we forget, St Pope John Paul II taught – in the words of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace – “Peace is founded not only on human rights but also on respect for the rights of peoples, in particular the right to independence.” (Page 69. #157). And the same pope famously taught us: “Peace is the fruit of solidarity.” (Sollicitudo rei Socialis, ‘On Social Concern’, no. 38. December 30, 1987).

Catholics ought to have the confidence and self-esteem to vote for those who can best bring about an end to England’s partition of Ireland.